Freedom of the press
by HelveticaBrown
Summary: Emma and Regina's relationship is brand new and the last thing they're expecting is for the whole town to find out. Previously posted to AO3.
_A/N: I posted this on AO3 a while ago but I've been a bit slack about cross-posting to . I know a few of you only read over here, so I'm trying to catch up on moving stories over here as well._

 _This was written for the 31 days of fanon Swan Queen, day 2 prompt: Who is the first to find out about them and how?_

* * *

 ** _Storybrooke's new power couple?_**

 _Move over Snow White and Prince Charming! There's a new power couple in town. Rumour has it there's been more than budget planning going on between two of Storybrooke's senior public officials for the past few months. More in tomorrow's edition._

Emma remembers seeing Albert Spencer having a few sneaky meetings with one of the councillors and wonders if that's who they're talking about. A call comes in and she's forced to abandon her morning ritual of a bear claw, a coffee and the Daily Mirror's gossip column. She heads over to Game of Thorns to deal with whichever one of the Billy Goats Gruff has been eating the orchids this time and thinks nothing more of the blind item.

* * *

The next morning, she's at her desk again and she's just bitten off an enormous hunk of her bear claw when she picks up the newspaper. She has reason to regret either or both of those actions when she starts to choke. David comes up behind her and thumps her on the back until the pastry is safely dislodged.

"Are you okay, Emma?" He's looking at her, worried, and she does her best to nod as she tries to get much-needed oxygen into her lungs.

She gratefully takes the cup of coffee he places in her hand, and once she's got her coughing under control she takes a sip. It takes her a moment to get her voice back. "I'm fine.

Reassured, he brightens when his eyes land on the newspaper. "Have you finished with the Mirror? I wanna check the tide times for this week."

She shakes her head and stuffs the newspaper inside her jacket before David can look at it properly, and hurries out the door.

When David starts making puzzled noises after her, she calls back over her shoulder, "I've… uh… I've got a suspect to interview."

She stops when she's outside the station and pulls the newspaper out of her jacket to take a proper look at the article. There's a grainy photo of what could be her and Regina kissing, depending on the angle, and she skims the article, frowning as she does so. An unnamed source has "spilled the beans" on their relationship, and as Emma reads the article, all she can think is that Regina's going to go thermonuclear.

She looks up and realises there's about a dozen people who've stopped and are staring at her. A couple scowl at her, others pretend to be busy with something else and one guy she doesn't know winks at her. She shoves the newspaper back into her jacket and storms off in the direction of the squad car.

Emma pulls up outside the offices of the Mirror and sees that Regina's beaten her there. The Mercedes is parked next to a fire hydrant and for a moment Emma considers writing Regina a ticket before deciding that she still has too much to live for.

She walks inside, and she ignores the woman at the front desk who tries to stop her. She doesn't need to know her way around the office to find her target; she can hear Regina getting more and more strident by the moment, and she follows her voice until she reaches her destination.

"From gal pals to LLBFFs to something more? What the hell does that even mean?"

Regina is standing over Penny Hennington, gossip columnist for the Mirror, expressing her displeasure extremely vocally. Emma allows herself a very, very brief moment to appreciate the view – Regina standing with her hands on her hips, chest thrust out, third button straining, eyes flashing – and thinks to herself that Regina really is extraordinarily attractive when she's angry, particularly when it's not directed at her. Even then, she's pretty damn hot.

"At the very least, you should have offered us right of reply," Regina says, as Emma comes to stand beside her.

"You're welcome to talk to me now. I can offer you an exclusive to tell your side of the story." Penny smirks. "I could probably even swing you a spot on the front page."

There's a moment when Emma thinks that Regina might just lunge at Penny and she brushes her hand surreptitiously against Regina's arm. It's just enough of a circuit breaker.

"I would have thought you might learn the value of fact-checking after the acorn debacle back in the Enchanted Forest," Regina says, and Emma's pretty sure she can hear her teeth grinding. "May I remind you that unlike the Enchanted Forest, Storybrooke has libel laws."

Penny is obviously intimidated – Emma can see her hands shake – but she refuses to be cowed. "I assure you, my sources are utterly reputable."

"How about you tell us who those sources are?" Emma can do menacing too; she widens her stance and her voice is low and even in a way that invites confession and hints at consequences.

"How dare you try to violate the First Amendment? I won't be intimidated into giving up my sources. And if you keep trying, the next article I write will be an exposé of how the Mayor's office is using law enforcement to bully journalists."

Penny's shaking even harder now, and she knocks over a half-empty cup of coffee. While she's mopping it up, Emma pulls the newspaper out and peers more closely at the picture. There's something about it that's niggling at her. A moment later, she has it.

"This picture's been doctored. I can tell you right now there's no way it's genuine. That jacket I'm wearing was trashed when the Flying Monkeys were rampaging through town and Regina didn't buy that blouse until the following Spring."

"Very good, Sheriff." Regina offers her a brief smile, and it's ridiculous how absurdly proud it makes her feel.

The rest of the reporters are pretending to be busy, an illusion that's shattered when one of them looks up from their computer and says, "How would you know that if you weren't dating?"

"I'm the Sheriff. It's my job to notice details that other people wouldn't."

One of the other reporters snorts. "Yeah, that's totally believable… because you did such a great job of figuring out who the Wicked Witch was."

Emma glares at him, but even she has to admit he kind of has a point, not that she'll say that out loud. She always has paid perhaps a little too much attention to the details of Regina's wardrobe.

"You'll print a retraction in tomorrow's edition. Front page," Regina snaps.

Penny shakes her head. "We'll print a correction regarding the photo, but the rest of it stands. My info was good and you can't prove otherwise."

"Kill the story, Hennington. Sheriff Swan has already discredited the only solid proof you've got. Kill it, or I file suit for libel."

At that, Regina sweeps out of the office and Emma trails in her wake. Regina gets into her car and winds the window down to talk to her.

"You think they bought it?" Emma says.

Regina shakes her head. "Not a chance. But I'd really like to know how they knew. It just doesn't seem possible… I mean, it's been less than a week and there's barely anything _to_ know about."

"Yeah, I know." A terrible thought occurs to her. "You think Henry's seen it yet?"

Regina shrugs helplessly. "I don't see how he _couldn't_ have heard."

"Damn." Emma shoves her hands into her pockets. "Do you think we should pick him up from school together this afternoon?"

Regina nods. "It's probably best we talk to him as soon as possible."

"By the way, next time you park next to a hydrant, I'm gonna have to write you up." She tilts her head in the direction of the Mirror's offices. "Otherwise those bottom-feeding assholes will be writing stories about police corruption."

* * *

They're sitting in the Mercedes, outside Henry's school, and on reflection, it probably wasn't the best plan to be seen in public together. They've only been there ten minutes and there's been a constant stream of parents and other random townsfolk walking past the car in a fashion that Emma can only describe as conspicuously casual.

"So, Nurse Ratched? You seriously dated her, or did they make that up?"

"Not seriously. But yes, we went out once or twice." Regina turns to look at her, brow arched sardonically. "Jealous?"

"No." Emma narrows her eyes. "Should I be? I kinda thought I saw her checking you out once or twice."

"You've got nothing to worry about, dear. You're the only one I'm interested in." She smiles as she says it, and Emma melts a little.

"Yeah?" She's feeling a little smug now. "I'm not gonna waste my energy on jealousy anyway. I mean, I'd be exhausted all the time if I did, because every time you walk into a room you're the hottest one there. I can hardly blame people for noticing that."

There's a smile curving Regina's lips and she kind of wants to lean across and kiss her right now, but manages to convince herself that it's probably not the best idea in broad daylight in front of Henry's school and a few dozen nosy onlookers.

Regina opens her mouth to respond, but she's interrupted by Henry getting into the car.

"Moms! You're both here?"

"Yeah. Thought it'd be nice if we both came to pick you up for a change," Emma says. She pauses for a moment, before continuing, not sure she really wants the answer to the next question. "How was school, kid?"

"It was okay. Just the usual stuff," he says, sounding exactly like the teenage boy he is, gruff and non-committal. Emma feels a momentary relief, a hope that maybe he hasn't seen the article and somehow hasn't heard about the story second-hand.

"Moms…" His voice takes on a wheedling tone and Emma turns to look at him suspiciously. "The gay-straight alliance at school was kind of hoping that one or both of you could be guest speakers at our next meeting."

Regina narrowly misses a parked car, and her voice is tight as she says, "We'll talk about this when we get home."

Henry shrugs. "Okay, Mom. Is Ma staying for dinner?"

Emma looks to Regina, who inclines her head. "Yeah, kid. Looks like I am."

"Cool."

* * *

They're sitting at the table. Regina's been pushing food around her plate for the past ten minutes and Henry looks like he's about to burst from not talking about the great big elephant in the room. It's pretty much started tap-dancing by now, and Emma's not sure how much longer they can ignore the subject. Emma stands up and walks around to stand behind Regina for a moment, laying a hand on her shoulder and trying to communicate as much silent reassurance and support as she can.

She clears the table. Regina's barely touched her food, while her and Henry's plates are clean, but she barely tasted a mouthful of her dinner. Normally she loves Regina's cooking, but today, it's pretty much the last thing on her mind.

This thing between them… it's all so new they've barely had time to talk about what it means for them, let alone how to talk to Henry about it. And now that choice has been taken out of their hands. It's frustrating.

She sits back down and Regina finally broaches the topic. "Henry, dear, we want you to know that we never intended for you to find out this way. We wanted to take a little more time to figure things out before we talked to you."

"Yeah, kid. It's not fair you heard about it from someone else and we'd understand if you were mad at us."

Henry shakes his head. "It's okay. I'm happy if you're happy."

Emma looks over at Regina and there's a slight smile in response to her own. And when she reaches out to rest her hand on Regina's, there's an answering grip and their fingers are interlocked.

"We are," they say in unison.

"Good." He's grinning at them now and it turns smug when he says, "Besides, I already knew."

"How?" It's only been a few days and they've been so careful and she can't understand how he could have known. There's the beginnings of an idea niggling at her, though…

"It's been obvious for months and I've been dropping hints for ages that I was okay with you dating. I mean, you could have told me any time and I would have been cool with it."

"We've only been official since last Saturday, Henry." As Regina says this Emma watches Henry closely; there's a flicker of something there, quickly disguised, and Emma's suspicions start to firm.

"What I mean is, I kind of hoped you'd get together." He's backpedalling quickly. "I mean, we're already a family, but I just thought that would bring us even closer." He's wearing his most beatific smile and Emma's pretty sure she'd be sucked in if her internal lie detector wasn't pinging just a little bit right now.

Regina's face softens. "Of course, darling," she says. She leaves the room a moment later to go to the bathroom, and Emma takes this opportunity to grill Henry.

"Okay, kid. Come clean. What do you know about the anonymous source this article quoted?"

He starts to deny it, but she cuts him off and points to herself. "Human lie detector. Remember?"

He sighs. "I didn't mean for it to happen like this. I seriously thought you'd been dating for months and you were lying to me. But I wasn't going to do anything like this."

"Why did you think we were dating?"

"You've been spending heaps of time together and you've stayed over a few times and you look at each other like…" He shrugs. "It just seemed like you were. I tried asking you about it, but you're both really good at avoiding conversations you don't want to have."

That last part, at least, is right and the fact that she and Regina have only just managed to talk to each other about something they've been dancing around for years only highlights that.

"So how does this relate to certain people at the Daily Mirror also believing that your Mom and I are dating?"

"That gossip columnist overheard me talking about it to Paige when we were at Granny's a couple of weeks ago, and she asked me a few questions and kind of managed to get me turned around enough that I wound up accidentally confirming a few other things." He looks sheepish as he says, "I should have told you about it, but I just wanted you to tell me the truth and it didn't seem like it was going to happen any other way."

"Oh, kid. I'm sorry you felt that way." She reaches over and ruffles his hair; she can't really bring herself to be mad at him because none of this has come from a bad place.

"You won't tell Mom, will you?"

"I don't know, kid. I'll have to think about it. Your Mom's a pretty private person. We both are, and this isn't something we were quite ready for."

"Okay. I get that."

"Did the kids at school give you any trouble today. You can tell me if they did, you know." She remembers her experiences of school and being different all too vividly, and she hates the thought that Henry might have had to go through something like that because of her.

Henry scoffs. "Of course not, Ma. It's 2016. And it they wanted to tease me about having two mommies, it's not like there's been anything stopping them for the last five years."

Regina walks back in and sits down.

"You know, it's Pride next month. We could all march in the parade together," Henry says, enthusiastically, looking back and forth at the two of them.

Regina raises an eyebrow and Emma's still trying to figure out how to respond when her phone buzzes. She pulls it out and looks at it for the first time in hours; she has a stack of missed calls and her mother's left her about a dozen voicemails.

"Aw crap. My parents. I totally forgot about them." She winces at the thought of the storm she's about to walk into. Her mother's not going to be pleased about being the last to know.

Regina walks her to the front door. "You can come over afterwards if you want to. Or not. Whatever you need."

"It could be pretty late."

"It doesn't matter. Whatever you need."

* * *

"How'd it go?"

As she'd expected, it was late and she'd hesitated before texting Regina. But she needed this, needed the calm, the sense of equilibrium she'd come to feel when she was with Regina.

Regina pats the spot next to her in the bed and she slips under the covers and sighs with pleasure as Regina starts to comb fingers through her hair.

"It went about as well as could be expected. Mom cried. A lot. And you know, said she'll always love me no matter what and then she started beating herself up over the possibility that I didn't feel safe enough to tell her and we went around in circles for a couple of hours and she cried some more and then she told me she loved me again and Dad sat there quietly through the whole thing…" By this point Emma had run out of breath. "I don't want to talk about it right now."

Regina's fingers continue to work their way through her hair, massaging her scalp, and she can just about feel some of the tension of what's been a crazy day start to slip away. She sighs again and snuggles in a little closer to Regina's side.

"It was Henry, wasn't it?"

Emma's surprised by that and she tilts her head up to look at Regina. "You knew?"

Regina smiles. "Of course I knew. He fidgets with his sleeves when he's nervous."

"He didn't mean for it to happen like this."

"Mmm... What's done is done and we'll find a way to adapt."

"I know." Emma sighs. "I kinda hoped we might have a little more time just for us before we became public property. But I guess it doesn't really matter and we'll be yesterday's news soon enough."

"It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if Granny's talking about us down at the diner or Leroy's talking about us down at the Rabbit Hole," Regina says.

She reaches down and takes hold of Emma's hand and presses it firmly to her chest. And she's not sure if it's magic, but she can feel the steady, rhythmic contractions of Regina's heart, even through her chest wall.

"This is what matters, Emma. What we carry here. This is what matters, and it's not for them to see or know. It's just for us."


End file.
